Have you got your Covid vaccination shot? If yes, you might doubt how it was made and produced. Similarly we all are vaccinated for polio and other such types of diseases which threaten our survival or cause irreversible damage Here in this article, we will discuss vaccines.
Vaccine
It is a biological product administered to the human population to protect them from microbial diseases.
Vaccine production
It is done with the help of dead (inactivated), modified (attenuated live) whole microbes, or from inactivated or recombinant parts of microbes that cause the specific disease.
These, when injected inside the body, produce antibodies.
These antibodies, in turn, create immunity which helps your body fight that particular microbe that is causing the disease in your body.
Its production requires extensive research, hard work, and testing. Testing is crucial as it ensures that the produced vaccine is suitable for the large population and does not cause any health problems.
Note- Vaccine production, and its rolling out in the large population depends on the technical, ethical and regulatory hurdles of a particular place the vaccine is aimed to be rolled out for.
Vaccine discovery
Edward Jenner first produced the vaccine in 1796 to create a viable cure for smallpox.
In his process of discovering the life-changing smallpox vaccine, Jenner noticed that the vaccine injected in cattle for cowpox was responding to both the viruses without resulting in any health hazard like any sought of illness or death.
Working of Vaccines
As you already know, vaccine production requires the usage of microorganisms. These organisms are grown in large amounts of toxins to produce the vaccine, resulting in toxoids.
When entered into the body of a living organism, these toxoids tend to produce antigens. When your body’s immune system detects these antigens, it creates antibodies to fight against the antigens. And hence, lastly, the live organism present in the vaccine and responsible for causing the health issues is detected, destroyed, and diluted by the individual’s antibodies.
And at last, this diluted form of the microbe is mixed with the adjuvant.
It is important here to remember what is adjuvant.
Adjuvant substances are those substances that work to increase the immune response towards toxoids in your body.
Vaccine Production
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Vaccine production is the preparation of antibodies with the help of disease causing organisms (pathogens) that can be bacteria, virus etc. which are weakened so they cause any disease but trigger the human body to produce antibodies
In other words, it can be said that vaccines are the “antibody provoking agents” that help your body fight a specific infection or disease.
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Vaccines help our body by providing immunity to fight the disease-causing microbes. Immunity is the power to fight against a specific disease or infection caused by a microbe inside our body
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Vaccines can provide both temporary and permanent immunity in an individual’s body. Like polio vaccine is given at specific intervals starting from 6 weeks to 5 years and it has helped in providing permanent immunity to this disease
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Cholera vaccine is given in case of epidemic triggers in any area. This is because this vaccine provides ready-made antibodies into the body which last maximum for a period of six months. Hence it provides temporary protection against the disease
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Vaccines are made to only attack the microbe it has been produced for. For example, suppose you have taken a vaccine shot for novel coronavirus. In that case, the vaccine will only act on the infected cells without causing any significant harm to the surrounding tissues or cells
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To date, scientists have successfully created a variety of vaccines for life-threatening diseases like –
Yellow fever, hepatitis, tuberculosis, smallpox, rubella, rabies, and now the coronavirus vaccine
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Today, with population explosion and increasing rates of eating disorders, the number of occurrences of new disease-causing microbes is growing significantly. Hence, increased production of new vaccines is required to combat these new occurring death-causing microbes
Note: Even after several years of extensive research and hard work, scientists have not yet been able to find viable vaccines for some of the most fatal diseases like malaria and HIV.
Vaccine Classification
Vaccines can be of different types depending on the disease they are meant to fight against. The major ones are as follows:
1. First-generation vaccines
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It is produced by using years of conventional techniques
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This form of vaccine production requires the usage of the whole microbe
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Since using a whole microbe does not provide any uniform quality, vaccines falling under this category can result in side effects
2. Second-generation vaccines
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These vaccines are produced with the help of recombinant DNA technology
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The vaccine production in these categories has helped produce effective vaccines for diseases like hepatitis B, pneumonia, herpes, malaria etc.
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It causes near to no side effects in the body
3. Third generation vaccines
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These are also known as synthetic vaccines
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Vaccines in this category are synthesised chemically, with a high purity level
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Vaccines produced in this category are effective in diseases like leukaemia etc.
Conclusion
Vaccine production is the process of creating antibodies that fight against a specific disease in your body. Till now numerous vaccines are produced. Many of the diseases are eradicated by the religious use of these like chicken pox. Some of these are given on the onset of certain diseases like cholera, plague,etc. So we can say that vaccines strengthen our immune system.